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He lives directly across the street from where the store would be built, so he imagines a future in which he’s driving home and the Costco is buzzing with customers, so he waits in a long line of cars to turn into his driveway. He pictures Costco shoppers getting out of their cars on the upper-level parking lot above the store and looking directly into his backyard.

“This is just wrong for the area,” he said of the proposed store, which would be built at the former site of Sears at the Northgate mall.

Costco Wholesale Corp. has submitted pre-application documents to San Rafael to build the store, which would include a tire center and gas station.

Smith has also hosted a group of residents who are critical of the project at his home to discuss their woes and devise an opposition strategy.

Their primary concerns, according to Smith, include an increase in traffic and potential negative health effects from the proposed gas station.

Some said their concerns about traffic have been amplified by San Rafael’s recent approval of plans to build a 136-unit condominium complex, dubbed “the Northgate Walk,” on Northgate Drive.

“If you live here you understand the traffic we face,” the online petition reads. “You know we already have four gas stations across from the mall. Simply imagine getting on or off (Highway) 101 with the new housing and Costco going in.”

According to conceptual designs submitted to San Rafael, the store would encompass about 152,400 square feet on the 7.5-acre property. It would reach 58 feet in height. There would be 662 parking spaces, and up to 971 spaces if a possible third parking level is added.

A tire center would be located on the southern end of the property near Northgate Drive, with a six-lane gas station abutting the building’s eastern side, the documents show.

Smith fears that fumes from the gas station could make air quality unhealthy, which he says could be detrimental for the residents of a nearby assisted living facility. The potential for more traffic could also be a burden on that facility, he said, because residents typically walk around the area.

“Thinking about thousands of visitors going to a Costco every day in my neighborhood is a little frightening,” said Adam Melenkivitz, who created the online petition.

But for Stephen Logan, vice president of Northgate mall owner Merlone Geier Partners, bringing a second Costco store to Marin is an “incredible opportunity” for the shopping center.

In 2017, Merlone Geier purchased Northgate mall from Santa Monica-based Macerich Co. for $170 million in a bundle deal that included Cascade Mall in Burlington, Wash.

“It will elevate other retailers and help start the retransformation of Northgate mall,” Logan said in an email. “In many ways, Costco will serve as the modern day anchor tenant for the entire mall, just as a once-thriving Sears used to be.”

Sears closed its Terra Linda store in March 2018 as the big-box retailer grappled with declining nationwide sales. It was one of the original anchor stores at the shopping center, which opened in 1965 as the Northgate Fashion Mall.

In response to community concerns about increased traffic that Costco could bring to the neighborhood, Logan said the issue will be studied.

“At this early stage, we have only submitted a pre-application to receive initial feedback from the city on the conceptual plan,” he said. “There will be a comprehensive process that we must follow, which includes studying trip circulation and other important issues.”